Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly says that the team's new engine provider is working flat out to prove itself.
Honda's previous partnership with McLaren collapsed at the end of 2017 after three disappointing seasons. The Japanese manufacturer has since made a new start with Toro Rosso as its works team in 2018.
Despite a promising show in pre-season testing, some of the same problems showed up the first race of the season.
Neither Gasly nor his team mate Brendon Hartley had enough pace to make it past the first round of qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. And when it came to the race itself, Gasly ended up retiring with a power unit failure after just 13 laps.
"The engine just switched off, it came back on again but I was really slow and I couldn't upshift," Gasly said later. "It's a shame, especially since we didn't have anything go wrong in testing."
"It is disappointing," agreed Honda's technical director Toyoharu Tanabe. "It was a tough start to the season."
Hartley did at least make it to the finish in Melbourne. However, he was a lap down by the time he crossed the line.
But Gasly is confident that Honda is pulling out all the stops in its bid to regain credibility in Formula 1.
"They are pushing flat out," he old Motorsport.com this week. "They really want to show everyone they can do proper engines.
"We can see some really positive progress," he added. "It’s all going well, but we also need to give them time because it’s Formula 1.
“For sure they cannot recover everything in only three or four months," he acknowledged. "But in terms of medium- to long-term collaboration I think they have a big, big plan ahead.
"At the moment they are doing the right things and really pushing hard.”
Honda's progress is likely to be constrained by new regulations limiting each driver to just three engines for the whole of 2018. Gasly said he didn't yet know when Honda would be rolling out updates to its power unit.
“We are pushing to have as many upgrades as we can," said the Frenchman. "But of course we know we only have three engines.
"We need to see exactly when is the best time to bring them," he explained. “The strategy going forward over the next six months is aggressive.
"Everyone in the team is pushing very hard. I’m very optimistic for the remainder of the season."
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